7 Comments

Interesting and thought provoking as usual David.

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Glad you're enjoying them Damian, appreciate the feedback

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Interesting, thanks for sharing these.

One addition I can think of is considering the potential alternatives. Perhaps this comes under cost-benefit analysis (if I choose this option, what other options are lost?). Often I think we pursue some new and shiny option when a ready-proven, but perhaps simple option already exists.

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100% Daniel! This is a huge one, mentallyI group it as an opportunity cost - which is not truly the definition of opportunity cost but I use it that way. They say a "yes" to something is a no to something else (perhaps all other things) whereas a "no" to something is a potential "yes" to everything else. I think in the performance space this is huge - the Norwegian triathletes for instance don't use much in the way of recovery beyond nutrition and sleep for this reason (other things would detract from those).

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David, great framework for decision-making, one thing that I am thinking a lot about is mental and emotional well-being, especially in high-pressured-performance-required-business modern times . I'm curious about how you factor in the role of mental and emotional well-being when making these decisions, coupled with the general feel of FOMO. How do you assess the psychological impact of potential health and performance interventions, especially considering that mental health can significantly influence physical health and vice versa?

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I think if we look at mental/emotional fatigue and wellbeing then mental models & heuristics can help cut a lot of the cognitive burden, for example the Norwegians I mentioned above to Daniel have a blanket rule that basically if it detracts from nutrition or sleep then it's a net loss to recovery and they don't engage with it (it's a little more nuanced but you get the point).

When talking FOMO - the challenge is real but also, I don't think many of the best worry much about what others are doing. My gut is this is driven largely by confidence; if you buy in and are confident in what you're doing you're not too fussed about what the others are doing (the Springbok selections around their bench come to mind).

In terms of tracking subjective things like psychological or emotional impact of an intervention I think it can get as complex as you'd like or very simple. A POMS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profile_of_mood_states) type of assessment is very common in sport for readiness tracking but think it applies here too, at least assuming other factors remain relatively constant if POMS (or a similar style of evaluation) improves then it's a net gain. You could also do something like Rob Dyrdek does and use a spreadsheet to track things like mood, energy etc daily or across parts of the day to get an idea of total trend .

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Thank you David, makes sense and I agree that while physical prowess is crucial, mental and emotional strategies play a vital role in overall success, and applicable in sports but can be extended to various high-pressure environments where performance and wellbeing are closely intertwined.

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